Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 22, 1998

A San Francisco man already facing drug charges in Alameda County has been arrested on a federal criminal warrant issued in Oklahoma accusing him of trafficking in pound-sized lots of methamphetamine.

Larry Rodrigo Lopez, 31, who lives with his parents in the Richmond District, is being held without bail after his arrest on a criminal complaint issued earlier this month by federal prosecutors in Oklahoma City.

Neither Lopez nor his attorney, Frank Bell, could be reached for comment.

Lopez is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on April 30 to determine whether he will be transferred to Oklahoma for trial.

An accomplice, Vidal Sanchez of Redwood City, was also arrested during the sting, and admitted that he knew he was transporting the illegal drug.

Lopez's arrest came to light when federal prosecutors here returned warrants for searches of his home and car to the clerk of the U.S. District Court. Among the papers with the warrants were copies of the criminal complaint against Lopez from Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoma case has been sealed by court order to protect the ongoing drug investigation, but an affidavit used to obtain the local search warrants contains some details about Lopez's alleged methamphetamine operation.

The affidavit, signed by DEA Agent Thomas J. Sullivan, says the case began when an Oklahoma- based associate of Lopez was arrested with a half pound of methamphetamine at the airport in Oklahoma City in March.

The associate -- whose name has been withheld -- agreed to cooperate with federal investigators, and he told them he had obtained the drug from Lopez, who was a regular supplier of large quantities of methamphetamine.

The informant said he had paid $3,000 for the drugs seized at the airport, and he was transporting most of it to another drug dealer in Oklahoma City.

Lopez had at least two pounds of the drug at the time of the purchase, the informant said. Sanchez detailed the steps he usually took to contact Lopez and also agreed to help the agents set up the Bay Area sting operation that led to Lopez's arrest.

Lopez, who also uses the aliases "David Michael Lopez" and "George Jesus Lopez," was arrested last September by Alameda County Sheriff's investigators during an unrelated half-pound methamphetamine sale.

He is still awaiting trial on the Alameda drug charges.

Court papers indicate that Lopez may be manufacturing the drugs he sells: a review of DEA files shows that Lopez purchased 10 gallons of hydriodic acid from an Oakland chemical company in 1992. Hydriodic acid is a chemical required for one of the most common methods of making methamphetamine.